This invention relates generally to a user interface ("UI") for a multifunctional printing system and more particularly to a management scheme for the UI which controls a manner in which precoded informational messages are delivered to the UI for displaying selected messages thereon.
Quoting from U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,723 to Herceg et al. (Issued: Jan. 7, 1992),
As reproduction machines such as copiers and printers become more complex and versatile in the jobs they do, the user interface between the machine and the operator or user, which in essence permits the dialogue (i.e., the ability to talk) between operator and machine, must necessarily be expanded if full and efficient utilization of the machine is to be realized. A suitable interface must not only provide the controls, displays, and messages necessary to activate, program, monitor, and maintain the machine, but must do so in an efficient, relatively simple, and straightforward way. For if the user interface fails in this respect, the abilities that were designed and built into the machine and which the machine owner pays for, may never be realized.
As disclosed by the '723 Patent as well as U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,958 to Bunker et al (Issued: Oct. 29, 1991) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,860 to McLaughlin et al. (Issued: Feb. 18, 1997) a user interface ("UI") can contain a wide range of information impacting the functionality of a corresponding printing system. Most significantly, a UI permits a user to provide the printing system with control information, such as suitable values for attributes. That is, the user typically provides control instructions for parameters associated with everything ranging from image processing to finishing characteristics. As disclosed in the above-mentioned patents, many dialogs may be required to sufficiently program the control instructions for a corresponding printing system. One exemplary way of organizing such dialogs is shown in FIG. 7 of the '860 Patent.
No matter how well organized the dialogs might be, however, relatively complex printing systems typically are associated with complex UIs. This situation is best seen in the area of network printing where information related to multiple printing machines is displayed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,571 to Rosekrans et al. (Issued: Sep. 12, 1995) discloses a system in which an interclient job ticket of a network printing arrangement is filtered for the sake of displaying the selections available at a single printer, rather than a plurality of printers. In this way, a user is not burdened with the task of determining which control selections are available at all of the printers in the network printing system, but rather with simply determining what control selections are available at the printer selected by the user.
As further disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,958 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,434 to Hower et al. (Issued: Nov. 14, 1995), a typical UI will include certain status information relating to selected operational information about a corresponding printing machine. For instance, the dialog in FIG. 4 of the '434 Patent conveys when the system is "Ready to Scan" and/or "Ready to Print". As further shown in the two above-mentioned patents, the status information is commonly provided in conjunction with control information, while the dialog is partitioned in such a manner that the control information is shown in one section and the status information is shown in another. Commonly, when the control and status information are shown together, the amount of space devoted to the status information is relatively small. Provided that the amount of status information is relatively minimal, then this does not pose a problem. When the amount of status information is relatively large, however, fitting a significant amount of control and status information on a single screen can be challenging.
When using a multifunctional printing machine with many services and a relatively small display screen, it may be impossible to fit all of the status information on a display screen with accompanying control information. In one example, this situation is handled by rotating status messages on a timed basis. That is, one status message is displayed during one time interval, while another status message is displayed during another time interval. This can be annoying to a user and even counterproductive if the user misses a status message because s/he is concentrating on programming control related attributes rather than observing the timed status message currently being displayed.
Moreover, multifunctional printing machines can possess a significant number of services, e.g. print, copy, fax, and filing services, and hence generate a variety of interfering status messages. For example, a group of messages associated with the print service (which is often network oriented) may have little to do with a set of messages relating to the copy service (which is often locally oriented). Accordingly, displaying messages in a non-ordered manner may be very confusing. For example, displaying a status message relating to one service while programming in another service is not optimal. It is believed that many of the challenges associated with comprehending the full significance of status messages in an easy, straightforward manner could be alleviated by providing a status messaging system in which status messages are displayed in an organized fashion where the particular messages being displayed are logically related to the control information being displayed therewith.